Burke Ramsey was just nine years old when his sister JonBenet Ramsey was brutally murdered. For 20 years the mystery surrounding the unsolved pageant queen's murder has captivated the world.

While conspiracies swirled about Burke's alleged guilt, he remained silent– until now. And the cold case is once again making headlines due to his bizarre tell-all interview.

In three exclusive interviews with Dr Phil McGraw, Burke responds to why he chose to keep quite for two decades, saying his life became a “chaotic nightmare.”

“For the last 20 years, I wanted to grow up like a normal kid, which does not include going in front of TV cameras,” Burke told Dr Phil. “I was pretty sceptical of any sort of media, it just made me a very private person.”

The first interview in the series debuted last night leaving viewers in shock at Burke's chilling smile as he recounted the night JonBenet died. Dr Phil has addressed the interview, speaking to Today he explained:

“This is a very socially awkward young man but understand that from the time this happened, his parents, depending on your interpretation, either protected him or hid him ... so he has not had the social contact that most kids have growing up. When you’ve got reporters at the end of your driveway you couldn’t go to school."

Another burning question Dr Phil answered was — why now, after 20 years’ worth of public suspicion primarily focused on himself and his parents?

“He was starting to get bombarded, people were finding him,” he said. “He knew his anonymity was gone, he said he wanted to control the narrative. His story was going to get told, he wanted to tell it.”

12 years after the crime, the Ramsey family was cleared of any involvement with Boulder, Colorado police issuing all three members a public apology.